


Lines

by MisterPseudonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Gen, POV Female Character, POV Second Person, Pseudoscience, Reader-Insert, Robot/Human Relationships, Science Fiction, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-10-20 10:31:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10660734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterPseudonymous/pseuds/MisterPseudonymous
Summary: There is a difference between man and machine; truth and lies; love and hate; right and wrong...But what if those lines blurred?





	1. Dreamer Wakes || Waking Dream

You moved at a pace too slow to be natural, every step flowing with intent and purpose, and though you understood the purpose, you knew no words to describe it. So you kept walking along a straight path, a gray road because no other choice existed. Sometimes, you saw malnourished, slender trees. And you knew that for every tree clinging to life, a dozen died due to the poor soil. _[T-rr-f-rm-ng]_ was hardly perfected on _[M--nb-s-]_. What was it?

Turning to glance at rows of abandoned prefab houses, a sense of loss gripped at your heart. How many lost? You faced ahead, at the path forever straight. But now you saw the bodies, faces blurry and indistinct. Yet you knew they were dead and it had little to do with _[t-rr-f-rm-ng]_. It was…

From the corner of your eye, you saw the large blue, mostly blue, jewel. No, not a gem. It was a [pl-n-t]. How it made your blood boil! It was _[--rth’s]_ fault. Their collective greed ruined everything. Yet the [r-b-ls] were hardly better. You wanted to finish your work in peace.

And your eyes fell upon the man standing tall atop a large podium, mouth vigorously enunciating some speech or another, but his words did not move your heart, even if you could hear them. They never did. They never would.

“ _[R-dk-] [-p-st-l-v]_ ,” you greeted, as he was now before you instead of delivering a dissertation from on high. “Such blind idealism hardly suits a relic like yourself.”

“And your lack of it is unbecoming.” 

“You judge too quick, commander. Regardless of my will, I shall do as you ask.”

You did not have the proper context to understand, but then the scene changed before you could even try.

“Ah… I didn’t make you for this, _**[K-ll-kr-t-s]**_.” A woman, her white coat disheveled and unbuttoned, sprawled scandalously atop a glossy metal coffin. “You’ll kill so many.” 

You felt like you should know her name, yet you did not. However, her pain, her loss, struck you deep… even though this all was a dream.

Something changed. You were in darkness, the sound of your breathing roaring in your ears. Hands moving, feeling the confines of your small bastille. After a whirring sound, you were suddenly freed from entrapment, but you shied away from the stinging light.

“We found you.”

“Dehamama Porima.”

“Si-Yen Tia.”

_[You should go with them. Before he stirs.]_

Were you awake or was this all another dream?

_[This is no dream. Don’t worry.]_


	2. Ero || Error

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You spend a lot of time on the floor. Kyklos needs better bedside manners.

It became apparent that the room you were in was actually quite dim, and the faintest of light stabbed like a thousand little pinpricks. Inhaling stagnant, musty, and wet air, the thought occurred that such conditions should _never_ be allowed in this room. It was bad for _something_. As you pondered why the condition of air played a role in... a hand, warm but calloused, held your arm and guided you further into that painful light.

You stumbled, legs unable to coordinate on the smooth floor. It had a name; a purpose. What? You should know. Why can’t you walk?

_[Like your eyes, you haven’t used them. It will pass.]_

“Wait, Cai,” the sound of a gentle voice stopped the person inadvertently—or was it intentional?—dragging you. “Si-Yen Tia has been asleep for a while. I don’t think she can walk just yet.”

_[You understand them. Wonderful. I was worried since the database was… No matter. You should be able to speak their language if you try.]_

Database? 

“If that’s so,” the voice, a different one—deeper, a man?—and rough hands guided you carefully to the smooth floor. “Take your time, Si-Yen.”

_[Please, you need to leave. He knows this room is compromised. He will come.]_

Ignoring the warnings of a nameless voice in your head, you slowly opened your eyes, using a hand to shield against the light.

_[Kyklos. I’m Kyklos. Please, hurry!]_

Finally, you could see! Momentarily, the room looked different—whole, undamaged. Artificial light bathed the stark white room, filled to the brim with oddly familiar apparatuses of varying size and functions… the names and purposes dancing on the tip of your tongue. Persistent buzzing, just barely audible, flooded your ears. Your hand traced the linoleum tiles… no. It was not linoleum, you somehow understood. _Polyvinyl chloride_ floors. As the image faded, revealing the current broken state of the room, you felt the knowledge of the floor’s composition a moot point entirely. 

They smiled at you with beaming eyes, the three that woke you from a amaranthine dream of vaguely familiar people speaking vaguely familiar words in places… vaguely familiar. Could it not be inferred that said dream was naught but a cleverly disguised nightmare?

The girl, the only girl among the strangers, knelt before you, her sun-kissed hand gently touched your shoulder, garnering your attention. You had questions, so many questions, and you spoke, words flowing naturally, “Where am I?”

Her brown eyes narrowed, likely pondering how to answer such an all-encompassing question. “Here,” she stretched her arms to either side, before continuing, “I know not a name, but beyond lies the plains of Err.” Her thick brown hair, caught in breezes from beyond the gaping ceiling of the once sealed room, billowed about her. 

Her answer did not help, however, you expected as such. “Who are you?” Your eyes drifted to each of them, dressed similarly in a combination of pelts and some furs. 

_[Hurry and leave!]_

“E’la. I am a sach’irdo,” the girl stated as if you should understand. You didn’t.

_[Sach’irdo...Sacer—A holy person, is the likely meaning. Can you leave now?]_

Paying the incessantly annoying Kyklos no heed, you stared expectantly at the black haired man beside you, likely the same person who helped you sit. Under the scrutiny of your gaze, he fumbled, “S-Si-Yen! Cai—I am named Cai!”

“Yiun is humbly before Dehamama Porima.” He kept his face low, and also stood the furthest away. Unlike E’la and Cai, his hair was an ashen blonde and skin a shade lighter. Out of the three, he appeared the most childlike. 

“Alright,” you nodded. Though you had more you wanted to ask, you did not want to suffer any more of Kyklos’ demands. Attempting to stand, your legs erupted into a thousand pins and needles. Cai, catching you as you stumbled yet again, help you steady. E’la came to your other side, and you used the pair as living crutches. “Thank you.”

After many slow steps, you finally climbed out of the broken room—a vestige of a different place and time. Deep gashes, monstrously so, in the otherwise verdant field was how the subterranean room became compromised and ultimately exposed to the outside elements. You wondered what could have inflicted such damage.

_[I don’t know.]_

Looking up toward the sun—you gasped. Even though you knew lamentably little, a serpentine dragon stretching across the sky—burning as bright as a sun—would always be inexorable wrong.

_[I forgot you wouldn't recognize_ the dragon _. Odd design, but that's the sun, believe it or not. It will be the last thing you see if you don't get moving. He knows the lab's been jeopardized, so he is on the way.]_

Who?

_[Kallikrates. He's going to kill you, dumb girl.]_


	3. Param || Para Bellum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't believe the lies.

You gaped at the dragon… sun…whatever it was. So massive, you could only see a small portion, the glittering remainder stretching beyond the horizon. It could not possibly be alive, could it? Dragons were not real, that fact held importance to you—a breadcrumb of logic you needed. If your logic was false, what did that leave you with? Who were you without it? Si-Yen Tia? Dehamama Porima? You only just woke, and this land, these people, there was something amiss.

_[Don’t worry. You need to go.]_

Observing your surprised reaction, E’la asked, “You don’t recognize Parais-Ta E’tan?”

_[Use these children to get to safety. Even when the database was intact, the Dragon was not in it. Say you haven’t seen the Dragon in a while.]_

You neither shared Kyklos’ motivation nor appreciated her—the voice sounded feminine—connotations, but you did not want to be abandoned. You _needed_ their help, and it seemed like you—or whomever they imagined you to be—were important to them. So you followed Kyklos’ suggestion, but only to uphold their expectations and waylay worries, “I have not seen the dragon… in a long time.”

Lying made your stomach churn, your heart heavy, but you were their cynosure. Surely you had to keep up appearances… You didn’t want to linger on your present thoughts. “Where… are we going, E’la?”

“To Param, our home. We must needs speak with the elder.” Her soft brown eyes shone with a kindness you did not deserve. In all likelihood, you were not what they imagined you to be.

_[Don’t worry. You are more than they could ever know.]_

You didn’t want to fail them. “Alright,” you spoke simply and in a calm voice to keep hidden your doubts and fears. While Cai and E’la supported you, Yiun sprinted ahead to gather their horses that wandered roughly a furlong or so in the time they were left to graze. 

You squished the blades of grass and underlying soil between your sore toes, quite enjoying the new sensation, broken only when Yiun returned with the horses—so much larger up close!—in tow.

“Si-Yen Tia, you shall ride with Cai, as his horsemanship is unrivaled amongst us.” She inclined her head toward the leather loop hanging from the black steed’s, presumably Cai’s, side… the… stirrup.

Awkwardly, you placed your foot in the stirrup, back lacked the strength to lift yourself up. Expecting such an outcome, Cai pushed at your backside, giving you the extra momentum you needed. You gripped at the saddle, mortified that every minute movement the horse made, you felt yourself sliding. Sensing your unease, the horse pawed the ground and snorted. When Cai, with both practiced ease and grace, mounted behind you, the horse finally relaxed. Cai smelled like earth and something… else.

Once the others sat astride their respective horses, Cai took the lead, and urged his horse on at a full gallop. “Let’s go!”

The unfamiliar world became a dizzying blur of bleeding colors. Your heart beat in tandem with the the hooves of the horse. The wind against your skin felt nice, so wonderfully nice.

||

Eyes closed, you felt nearly weightless like a drifting dandelion seed. Tuning out everything else, you focused on that sensation. Briefly, you wondered if even Kyklos’ voice could reach you. Testing the boundaries of this freedom, you let the winds carry you, completely at the mercy of its whimsy. If you opened your eyes now, would you be upon a leather saddle or floating in the air?

Something changed, a sound of scraping metal, a baying of a beast. Lashing, thrashing. Tearing up the ground. Exposing the… Necessary components… Eight snakes snapping, snarling. Ceasing. Sensing. _Seeking. Hunting._

You pushed away, not wanting to remain near the sentient moil of whatever… that thing was. It started to rain, you felt it on your distant body. Rain! Cai had the scent of earth and the fleeting moments before rain!

_[—octo! Run! Run! Run!]_

The horses reared, threatening to wrest you from the perilous saddle. Barely, you managed to cling to the horse’s wild mane while Cai regained control. The out of body experience left you even more disoriented.

The ground rumbled, shook violently. Heavy stomping, vivacious snapping—something was surely approaching!

“Hydra…” Yiun trailed, his voice naught but a quivering whisper.

“Oh, E’tan above!”

In the distance—lamentably not far enough—the beast stood taller than any tree, eight snake-heads staring transfixed. Staring at you. It recognized you from before? But how?

And then the monster charged, taloned legs working in a frenzy. No amount of discipline could keep the steeds in check this time. They reared once more, violently pitching you through the air. Everything was going too fast! Cai’s tanned hand couldn’t reach yours. E’la shrieked. Yiun’s horse bolted, taking him with.

And you were falling. Eyes closed, as if to ward off the impending pain, you prayed for help. For anything.

Yelping, someone crashed into you, rolling with the impetus, and cradled you with warm arms. When at last the energy of the tumble was spent, you lifted yourself up, peering at your savior, expecting to see the strong features of Cai. It wasn’t.

He looked fragile, skin like pale porcelain, long brown hair falling straight and without tangles, unnatural blue-green eyes bore into your own impassively. “Are you uninjured?”

_[Don’t believe his lies!]_

“Kallikrates?”

_[Kill him before he kills you!]_

“I request that you remove yourself. Or do you have a taste for dismemberment by a paltry machine?”


End file.
